The Theme of Holocaust in the Visual Arts: To the Problem of Archetypes and Stereotypes of National Cultures

Abstract

Examines reflections of the artists on the historical phenomenon, compares them to the universal human approaches and traces transformations of this phenomenon into the “given circumstances” (Konstantin Stanislavsky) in the course of artistic work. The author addresses the Russian national cinematography and argues that it may pretend on the leading position in representing the theme under examination. The Russian films reveal particular aesthetic and ideological paradigms, general cultural patterns, relationships, and positions related to the topic which are not that apparent in other arts, for example, in drama, music or literature. The author believes that all these principles eventually allow drawing conclusions on and proposing principles of ethnic cultural theory of film art which may be interpreted as a visual representation of the deeper archetypes and stereotypes of national cultures analysis of the Holocaust theme in mass shows. The cultural and the general creative principles and techniques of mass musical show productions are also examined.